Corpbank Should be Saved. A Lose-Lose Strategy is Not Beneficial for Anyone

October 20th, 2014

“Corpbank AD became inconvenient because it became the fourth largest bank in Bulgaria”, said in an interview for novinite.bg Professor Antoaneta Vassileva. Prof. Vassileva is Dean of the International Economics and Politics Faculty of the University of National and World Economy, Professor in Global Economics and International Economic Relations at the International Economic Relations and Business Department of the UNWE, and wife of the Corpbank AD’s majority shareholder Tzvetan Vassilev.

In her opinion the best scenario is “Corpbank AD recovered” because the bank has been a creditor of part of the prospective Bulgarian business, it has helped the Bulgarian culture, science, and sports and now all people lose from the fact that it is not working. Unfortunately, certain circles - representatives of the “comprador capital”, the pseudo-elite, who claim a certain standard of living without real value, the politicians who do not like independent and strong national business – are not interested in the prosperity of Corpbank AD and they have initiated an attack against the bank and Tzvetan Vassilev, said Prof. Vassileva.

She defined the criminal case against her husband as farcical and contrived "under dictation of certain political circles that are decided to destroy the bank" and pointed out that the presumption of innocence is a fundamental principle of criminal law and everyone has to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. “The indictment was based on the testimony of witnesses whose integrity and depth of thought are questionable: it was already proven that some of them had forged signatures and documents”, said Prof. Vassileva. According to her, another explanation for the attack against Tzvetan Vasilev is that "someone obviously looks for a whipping boy for the mistakes of the Bulgarian transition period and it is convenient for many people this victim to be Tzvetan Vasilev."

Prof. Vassileva commented in the interview on the so-called “exclusive journalistic investigation” of the Trud newspaper in which it was stated that she had acquired a twenty-million euro property near Geneva. “Somebody apparently took my tax declaration to the Trud editor’s office trying to make a cheap sensation”, said Prof. Vassileva and highlighted that the property in Geneva was bought with a mortgage credit and it was marital property. “My husband is one of the biggest taxpayers in Bulgaria, with proven income, which enormously exceeds our family expenses. It is absurd that such investigations are initiated in an EU member state, which aims at providing freedom of movement of people and capital, and claims to have freedom of market initiative”, added Prof. Vassileva.

She expressed her sympathy and unconditional support for his husband in this difficult moment: “I witnessed the continuous efforts of Tzvetan Vassilev to recover Corpbank AD. In this four-month period of criminal-political attack against the bank, there was not a single day that passed without him meeting an investor, partner, client or interested party” but she stressed that she always had independent development and she didn’t take part in his business as she was devoted to her work as Professor and Dean.